The ISIS militant known as Jihadi John has been unmasked. (Photo : Reuters)
In the last Islamic State (IS) beheading, notorious executioner Jihadi John was conspicuously absent from the scene. Instead of Mohammed Emwazi - the real name of the decapitator of American, British and Japanese hostages - it was a young boy who did the dirty job.
One possible reason why it was no longer the masked man in black attire who did the beheading is that Jihadi John has fled the IS-controlled regions for fear of his life. His face cover was no match for technology that western media unmasked Jihadi John as Emwazi and in the process placed the man's life in danger, reports Indiatoday.
However, while Emwazi took the lives of David Haines and Alan Henning, British aid workers; James Foley and Steven Sotloff, American journalists; and Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, Japanese hostages, it is the IS which is pursuing Jihadi John, not the western and rich nations whose nationals Emwazi decapitated. Goto was his last victim, notes News.com.au.
It is "jealous" jihadists who are after Emwazi's wife and want him dead, the daily cites a report from Russia Today. "If they feel he is no longer of any use to them," IS would ditch him and he risks the possibility of "suffering the same fate as his victims," Russia Today said.
There are conflicting reports of Emwazi's whereabouts. In June, Sunday Express cited a U.S. intelligence source that Jihadi John is in Libya so he would no longer be in the limelight. But Indiatoday reports that the beheader is with a lesser-known jihadist group in Syria.
Emwazi was born in Kuwait but raised in Britain. He has a computer science degree as is also wanted by a U.S.-led coalition for threatening to kill U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
